We are pleased to announce that Love Letters is officially completed and orders are shipping today! We are so thankful for the efforts of each designer that contributed to the project as well as each of you who’ve already pre-ordered your set.

Our good friends over at Fiction heard about what we’re trying to do with Love Letters and came by to make a beautiful little film about the project. Side note: if you haven’t seen it, check out the film they made about our Kluge (which is now a Vimeo Staff Pick).

Whether or not you’ve been to visit the Hamilton Wood Type & Print Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, the legacy and craft housed there has had an incredible impact on everyone in the graphic design and printmaking industries. Because of this, we were shaken to hear of their current plight. They’re being forced to relocate and need help raising funds to move and store their incredible type collection.

To help raise money and awareness for the museum, we’re releasing a set of 7 letterpress printed alphabet coasters inspired by the legacy and craft of Hamilton Wood Type & Print Museum. The set, made with paper donated by Neenah Paper and French Paper, includes A, E, I, O, U, &, and Y. As if the cause weren’t enough to mobilize conscientious creatives, this project has a roster to die for:

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps was birthed in 1867 and and still operates today. They produced some seriously gorgeous hand-lettered maps back in the day, many of which can be found in the Library of Congress. These late 19th and early 20th century type treatments are well worth passing around for all the design world to be inspired by. See the entire scanned collection at BibliOdyssey.(Most of the images on that page link to hi-rez scans on Flickr!) There’s also a great little discussion/comment thread in BibliOdyssey’s entry on Typography vs. Lettering. Some real nerd stuff. Love it.

A few of my favorites.

You design something like this and send it over for a letterpress print on some tea-stained paper and I’ll be well inclined to give you a seriously hooked-up price on it!